The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine

Barbara Jean Trenton is a faded film star who lives in the past by constantly re-watching her old movies instead of moving on with her life, so her associates try to lure her out of her self-imposed isolation.

Storyline

Former queen of the silver screen, Barbara Trenton's a woman who lives in her past - watching her movies from more than 25 years earlier. Her housemaid, Sally's worried by her behaviour, and tells Barbara's friend, and agent Danny Weiss. He tries to make Barbara move on, even getting her a role in an upcoming film. But Barbara lives in the past and won't accept that she's older now.Written by
Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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Trivia

Quotes

Rod Serling - Narrator:
[Closing Narration]
To the wishes that come true, to the strange, mystic strength of the human animal, who can take a wishful dream and give it a dimension of its own. To Barbara Jean Trenton, movie queen of another era, who has changed the blank tomb of an empty projection screen into a private world. It can happen - in the Twilight Zone.
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User Reviews

In The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine, Ida Lupino plays Barbara Jean Trenton, an ageing actress who constantly revisits her youth via her private film collection; so strong is her desire to return to the glory days of yesteryear, that she eventually breaks the 'fourth wall', entering the movie screen to spend all eternity with her co-stars.

The ability to live forever or recapture one's youth are recurring themes in The Twilight Zone. This episode is reminiscent of earlier TZ story Walking Distance, in which a stressed New York advertising exec longs for the halcyon days of his childhood; but whereas that particular episode ends with the central character accepting that he doesn't belong in the past, The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine features an altogether different message... that if one wishes hard enough, they can cross over into The Twilight Zone, the dimension where anything is possible, and stay forever young. It's a less than satisfying denouement, if only for the fact that Barbara Jean Trenton is such an unlikeable, self-obsessed person.

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